2 Officers Die In Battle

WHITE CITY -- Two Fort Pierce narcotics agents and a suspected drug trafficker were killed in a gunbattle at a mobile home where the officers thought cocaine was being sold, police said Tuesday.

The shoot-out occurred about 9:50 p.m. Monday when three plainclothes officers tried to secure the mobile home, in White City, southwest of Fort Pierce, while waiting for a search warrant, police said.

St. Lucie County Sheriff Robert ``Bobby`` Knowles said the officers and an investigator from the State Attorney`s Office had arranged to buy a kilo of cocaine from someone they followed back to the mobile home.

While investigator Stacey Moran tried to get a search warrant for the mobile home, the plainclothes officers attempted to force their way into the mobile home to make sure any cocaine there would not be destroyed before the warrant arrived, State Attorney Bruce Colton said.

Lt. Grover Cooper, commander of the department`s vice and narcotics unit, and officers James Wouters and Robert Spring were shot by an unknown assailant after they forced their way into the mobile home, Knowles said.

``There were many shots fired inside the residence,`` Knowles said. ``We don`t yet know how many. But I believe there was forced entry to the front door and their bodies were found in a large living room and dining room area.``

Two or three sheriff`s deputies and a uniformed Fort Pierce officer were standing by when the shooting took place, Knowles said.

After the shooting, about 50 sheriff`s deputies and police officers surrounded the mobile home waiting for occupants to surrender. When police entered the home six hours later, they found the owner dead of gunshot wounds.

Knowles said he did not think the slain officers were wearing bulletproof vests. The officers were wearing caps and jackets that identified them as police officers, however, Knowles said.

Knowles said a K-9 unit was sent into the mobile home a few minutes after the shooting to help officers extract their fallen comrades.

Cooper, 31, died at the scene. Wouters, 33, died about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, a hospital spokesman said. Wouters underwent surgery and later died, the spokesman said.

Spring, 33, was in serious condition at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center late Tuesday, the spokesman said. He was being treated in the hospital`s intensive care unit.

James Daniel Hunt, age unknown, was pronounced dead of gunshot wounds inside the mobile home about 4 a.m. Tuesday when a Special Operations Team forced its way into the residence and found his body.

Knowles, who gave the order for the Special Operations Team to enter the residence, said the officers found Hunt`s body in a room he did not identify.

When police removed the injured officers, they also arrested Hunt`s 25-year- old stepson, Ralph Horton, who lives in the mobile home. After admitting to detectives that he had arranged a cocaine buy that led to the shoot-out, Horton was charged with two counts of homicide, two counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and delivery of cocaine, according to court records.

One of the attempted murder charges against Horton was later upgraded to murder Tuesday after Wouters died.

After the shooting, relatives and even a minister were brought to the scene in an attempt to coax any occupants -- at that time thought to be Hunt and his wife -- out of the trailer, Knowles said.

When the hours dragged on and police did not receive a response, Knowles said he ordered officers to fire tear gas into the home. One volley was fired about 2:30 a.m. and others followed at 3:30 a.m. until more than a dozen tear gas canisters had been shot.

The siege ended about 4 p.m. when the Special Operations Team, which normally consists of 10 officers, stormed the residence and found Hunt`s body. Knowles said the man could have been shot through the trailer, although it was more likely he was injured in the initial shoot-out.

``He may have been shot through the wall,`` Knowles said. ``But I now feel he may have been shot during the initial entry.``

Police found a 9mm handgun that may have belonged to one of the officers, and a revolver inside the mobile home, while a third handgun was found in another building nearby.

No drugs had been found at the residence by Tuesday afternoon, but Knowles said police had not yet conducted a thorough search because crime scene technicians were still attempting to record the condition of the trailer.

Missing from the residence was Carol Hunt, wife of the dead man, Knowles said. Although police thought they saw her inside the residence during the siege, she may have fled on foot from the mobile home after the shooting.

A warrant had not been issued for Carol Hunt`s arrest, but police wanted her for questioning, Knowles said.